The otherwise benign-looking DVD hid a brutal double beheading that was stamped with all the hallmarks of Mexico's ultra-violent drug cartels.

As the bloody short film booted up in the laptop, a sinister figure in a black balaclava appeared wielding the kind of sub-machine gun favoured by drive-by shooters in the US.

The hooded man on screen then issued a thinly veiled threat to the audience of two watching the DVD - an American professional gambler, RJ Cipriani, and his Brazilian model and actress wife, Greice Santo.

Pay up a $2.5m debt to a US cocaine kingpin with links to Mexican and South American drug cartels or a grisly fate awaits, warned the man in the DVD.

A man holds gun and threatens RJ Cipriani and his wife Greice Santo (pictured right) in the DVD that was sent to them by Owen Hanson. (Supplied) ()

The film then cut away to a pair of shirtless men. Each is savagely beheaded – one with a chainsaw, the other a butcher's knife.

In a San Diego courtroom last Friday, Owen "O-Dog" Hanson, the 35-year-old Californian who had sent that vicious DVD to Cipriani and his wife, was sentenced to 21 years and three months. He plead guilty to racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to distribute drugs - US federal prosecutors also seized upwards of $6.5m of Hanson's cash and property assets.

The $2.5m Hanson had been trying to shake out of Cipriani in the beheading DVD had an Australian connection, with the seven-figure sum having been lost in 2011 on VIP blackjack tables inside Sydney's The Star casino.

High-roller Cipriani had blown the millions in drug money – purposefully he claimed - after realising he had been set up to launder Hanson's cocaine profits from his lucrative Australian operation.

By the time of his arrest in September, 2015, Hanson had smuggled hundreds of kilograms of cocaine into Australia through connections in Mexico and Peru.

Hanson, a former University of Southern California football player, was able sell a kilogram of cocaine for $230,000 in Australia, compared to $20,000 in Los Angeles.

RJ Cipriani, who also goes by the name Robin Hood 702, pictured with actress and model wife, Greice Santo. (Supplied) ()

The cash flooded in, but Hanson needed to clean it. Enter Cipriani, a pro-gambler well known in Las Vegas betting circles. Around the time Hanson was lining his pockets with Australian drug money, Cipriani was branding himself as Robin Hood 702, a kind of philanthropist who would win money from the casinos to give to the poor.

Cipriani had once dated a woman named Crista Velarde, who unbeknownst to him was now married to Hanson. One day she phoned Cipriani out of the blue, and told him she knew of an American businessman who wanted to bank roll Robin Hood 702's charitable efforts.

Owen Hanson (left) came from a well-to-do affluent family yet still turned to crime, making millions in an international drug smuggling operation and illegal gambling racket. (Supplied) ()

After meeting up, Hanson explained to Cipriani that he loved the Robin Hood 702 vision. Hanson said he would give the high-roller his cash and whatever profits Cipriani made he could give away to the needy. The principle sum would go back to Hanson via a casino cashier's cheque.

The plan sounded solid, straight out of a Martin Scorcese gangster flick, but down in Australia Cipriani got spooked. Hanson delivered several large suitcases and a carry bag containing millions of dollars in Australian fifty dollar bills to Cipriani's plush penthouse suite at the five-star Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney.

"I can't begin to tell you how many people have offered me money; put up money for me to gamble," Cipriani told nine.com.au, recalling the cash exchange with Hanson.

"It wasn't unusual in the slightest for someone to say, 'Here's some money go gamble'."

Crista Velarde, wife of Owen Hanson, appeared in court to watch her husband get sentenced. (Supplied) ()

But the way Hanson handed over millions of dollars like it was no big thing unsettled Cipriani. So, inside The Star casino's VIP room, Cipriani decided to "leave it with the gambling gods" and lay the maximum bet of $20,000 on every hand. In a couple of days, every dollar of the $2.5m was gone.

Hanson was furious. He met Cipriani at a bar inside The Star, and he brought with him some extra muscle, a former Australian MMA fighter.

Cipriani told nine.com.au how Hanson's snarling henchman said he was going to cut the gambler's throat, and that he was to hand over his passport.

Cipriani went back to his hotel room and called security at The Hilton Hotel, where the hired muscle was staying.

He falsely told Hilton staff that a man with a gun was inside room 3026. Staff called NSW police, who stormed the room but they didn’t find a gun. Police officers did, however, find a suitcase stuffed full of $702,000.

'I was so emotional I was trying to hold back tears. I was talking about my wife and what they did to her. It all came back to me, all the emotions all the anger. It finally gave me and my wife closure because there was a fear that Owen Hanson was only going to get five years or ten years.' Rj Cipriani told nine.com.au the emotion of delivering a victim impact statement. ()

That now infamous cash-packed suitcase marked the start of a joint four-year investigation between the NSW Police and FBI that ended with the take down of Hanson and the dismantling of his drug and gambling operation, O-Dog Enterprise.

But in the four years leading up to his arrest in the car park of a San Diego golf club, Hanson had tried various methods to try and intimidate Cipriani to hand over the missing $2.5m cash.

After Hanson had desecrated his mother's grave, Cipriani went to the FBI and became a source, codenamed Jackpot.

During Hanson's sentencing last week, Cipriani delivered an emotional victim impact statement, often fighting back tears.

He detailed the threats made against his actress wife, Greice Santo, and the long-lasting impact they had left.

"Words cannot describe the horror my wife went through watching every frame of the beheading video. It was gruesome," Cipriani said.

"She is so paranoid still today because of what Owen Hanson put her through. She constantly looks over her shoulder … and she can't check her mail without being worried that another package might be sent by Owen Hanson or one of his crew."

Crista Velarde, Hanson's dark-haired wife, appeared in court to watch the judge hand down a punishing sentencing of 255 months on her gangster husband.

Greice Santo was terrorised by Owen Hanson's henchman for years. The actress was sent packages and received continous abusive and threatening phone calls. (Supplied) ()

Cipriani told nine.com.au he blamed Velarde for what had happened to him and his wife.

"I trusted her, I dated her years ago. I never thought in a million years that Crista Velarde would set me up with her husband who happened to be a very, very big international drug dealer," he said.

Cipriani targeted Hanson and Velarde with a personal barb at the end of his victim statement: "While you sit and rot in jail for decades your wife Crista Velarde has moved on with her life, and has been spending your money and having a grand old time."

When Cipriani first approached the FBI in Philadelphia, they did not believe his story. Undeterred he took it to the San Diego field office and they had launched an investigation.

Cipriani praised assistant US attorney Andrew Young, FBI agent Brett Fenoglio and two other undercover agents, known only as John and Nick, for believing the information he had on Hanson, and who had orchestrated the downfall of the crime boss's smuggling operation.

A photo of RJ Cipriani's mother's tombstone, that was vandalised by one of Owen Hanson's crew. This was another example of threats and packages sent to Cipriani and Santo. (Supplied) ()

"Owen Hanson was at the top of his game. He wasn't a mid-level guy, he was at the top of the food chain for quite some time," Cipriani said.

"Countless lives have been saved because the drugs that Owen Hanson was selling were destroying and polluting lives globally."

A total of 20 people in the US who were linked to Hanson's O-Dog operation have pleaded guilty to various charges.